TPI Composites seals Vestas India blade deal

US independent blade-maker TPI Composites has signed a supply deal with Danish OEM Vestas to provide blades for India and other export markets from a factory to be built in the Chennai region.

The “multi-year” agreement covers four manufacturing lines – with an option to add more models – produced out of the new facility, which is slated to start fabrication of first blades “in the first quarter of 2020”.

“We are pleased to announce a significant new global wind blade manufacturing hub in India with Vestas as our first customer,” said TPI chief executive Steve Lockard.

Vestas chief operating officer Jean-Marc Lechêne said the deal would “strengthen [its] global manufacturing footprint” and “underlined [its] commitment to the Indian renewable energy industry through continued investment and job creation with the goal of building up India as a global manufacturing hub”.

TPI currently fabricates blades for Vestas in factories in China, Turkey and Mexico.

In November, Lockhard said he expected to add another blade production facility in 2019 amid rising demand from an expanding portfolio of turbine OEMs as global wind industry growth strengthens heading into next decade, but would not be drawn on the “geography” of the new factory.